MVC Champs Creighton Set to Host Valley Baseball Tourney

The Creighton baseball team swept the Missouri State Bears over the weekend, giving the Jays their first MVC regular season championship since the 2005 season. The Jays (39-13, 15-6) earn the number one seed in the MVC Tournament next week, which will be played at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha starting on Tuesday, May 24, 2011.

Creighton will take on the Bradley Braves in the final game of day one, pitting the No. 1 seed vs. the No. 8 seed. The two teams played a series earlier this season in Omaha, with the Jays sweeping the three games for the first time since 2007. Creighton won game one 7-3, game two 10-1 and game three 16-6, erasing a six run deficit to end the game in seven innings. The offense had it’s best three game sequence of the week, picking up 39 hits on the weekend led by Trever Adams’ 9-13 series.

The Bluejays will likely face-off against Nebraska native Joe Bircher, who has proven to be the Braves’ opening ace this season. The south paw threw 5.0 innings in the first meeting this season, giving up four runs on eight hits. The Jays roughed up the Braves pitching staff in the opening meeting, with Nick Judkins,Jimmy Swift, Anthony Bemboom and Adams combining for 11-of-the-14 hits in the game.

Creighton is slated to throw Jonas Dufek, who has moved into the “Friday night starter” position for the Jays in the last two series. In his first outing against the Braves earlier this season, Dufek threw 8.0 innings, allowing just one run and striking out seven. Mark Winkelman picked up the final inning of work in that game, striking out one of the three batters he faced in the final frame.